You're old man was right.
...apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Thank you for your kind words. It seems that many people have lost their perspective, especially historical perspective.
Some of the more radical League of the South supporters keep ignoring the historical record to promote a modern political agenda which does not fit with the reocrd of Southern history.
Neo-Confeds keep claiming they want today's South to be free of "yankee" socialism. While socialism is certainly something to be despised, claiming the record of the Confederacy would be unwise. Although founded on a doctrine of state's rights, the Confederate Government of President Davis instituted a tremendous ammount of socialism in practice such as: CS Government ownership of a majority of the South's factories, the first national military draft in American history, as well as confiscating the property of thousands of civilians whether Unionist or Confederate for the war effort.
So as not to be accused of "damnyankeeness" I will state that the Union Government under Lincoln did much of the same. My problem is in accusing one section of the United States with political heresies that are prevelant in the other. In the United States today, conservatives tend to live in the rural and suburban areas, while liberals tend to thrive in the cities. Thus rural Pennsylvania and Alabama are conservative, while urban New York and New Orleans are liberal. Remember where Huey Long was from? It's silly to have North/South sectionalism in 2002.
Slavery was the dominant issue of the war. Southerners must accept this. That's not to say that it was the only issue or a moral crusade of good Northerners versus bad Southerners. The James McPherson position is outdated and over simplified. The truth is that the slavery issue was too complicated to fix on moral, social, religious, and economic grounds (even for the Founders), and thus led to a tragic war.
Another Neo-Confed myth is that the South was unified during the War. In areas where slavery was strongest (coastal SC, Mississippi) secession was popular. In areas of the South where slavery was weakest (Kentucky, West VA, East Tenn) secession was unpopular. That is as good evidence as any for the slavery issue to be coupled with secession. I repsect any Southerner or other American who stands up for protecting battlefields, symbols, and heroes like RE Lee and Cleburne. We must arm ourselves with knowledge and a better argument to combat the McPherson's of the world, the true damnyankees. Radicals like DiLorenzo do more harm than good.